India needs to boost indigenous production quality to lift manufacturing sector: Minister Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal spoke of the need to be 100 percent indigenized in auto industry.

There is a need for India’s manufacturing sector to be independent, competitive and capable of providing quality products to consumers indigenously, as the prospects of production-linked incentive schemes to help the sector is limited, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said.

While speaking at the Asia Economic Dialogue in Pune on February 25, Goyal raised some key concerns about India’s free-trade agreement with Korea and Japan, according to a report in The Times of India. Goyal said that foreign automakers like Kia and Hyundai have enjoyed the benefits of indiscriminate imports by India despite being laggards in the country’s auto market. This has added to India’s trade deficit.

The minister spoke of the need to be 100 percent indigenized in auto industry. “We must strengthen our domestic manufacturing capabilities; we should be competitive and able to stand on our legs and our consumers must be more caring on the potential we are losing by indiscriminate imports,” according to a separate government statement on that same event that cited Goyal, who is also the minister of Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

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Goyal noted that although there are discussions with Korea to open up its markets for Indian goods, the highly nationalistic spirit of the Korea businesses can pose a concern for India. Korean businesses heavily promote buying from the local market even for elevated prices, an ideology which, according to Goyal, Indian businesses lack.

Citing an example, Goyal said that even though Korea and Japan do not put a check on steel exports from India to Korea, even a ton of steel cannot be actually sold into the Korean market.

“Over the years, we have become weaker and started enjoying low-cost, poor-quality goods,” he said, noting that India’s prospects are being hurt by such sentiments. “We (government) are fighting it. It will take some time for us to create adequate systems and domestic manufacturing capacity,” he added.

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